CM YS Jagan's statement rekindles hope on Machilipatnam port

Vijayawada (NTR District): After few years gap, the issue of the construction of Machilipatnam port has come to fore once again after Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy spoke for it at a recent programme at Pedana.

In fact, the issue of port construction has gone into abeyance for decades despite having two ground-breaking ceremonies by Chief Ministers YS Rajasekhara Reddy and Nara Chandrababu Naidu. But no work was started. When the people of the erstwhile Krishna district are eventually losing hopes over it, the CM mentioning about port construction and stating that all the hurdles including court cases were cleared and soon the foundation ceremony will be held, gave a ray of hope to them.

However, Detail Project Report (DPR) is yet to be submitted for the construction and there was no allocation of funds. It is learnt it will take about six months to submit the DPR and the port work is likely to start before the general elections. It is estimated that about Rs 5,155.73 crore is needed for its completion. Machilipatnam Port Development Corporation Limited may take up the construction of the port.

The Machilipatnam port construction issue has a long story. During the regime of late Chief Minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy in 2005, there was news that Machilipatnam was not viable for port construction and the government planned to shift the port and construction near Narsapur. This news created commotion among Machilipatnam and Krishna district people, who organised agitation for about 500 days. Machilipatnam people formed a Joint Action Committee and undertook relay hunger strike at Koneru centre. Hundreds of people, including students, traders, daily wage earners and from all sections participated in that strike. Political leaders also participated in the strike.

The then Chief Minister Rajasekhara Reddy released a GO for constructing Machilipatnam port. Later, during election campaign he unveiled a plaque pertaining to Machilipatnam port at Noble College in Machilipatnam in 2009 and had allocated port construction works to Mytas by sanctioning about Rs 2,000 crore. But his efforts were in vain for many reasons.

In addition, Mytas, which did take the construction works, was caught in legal tangles at that time. In the wake of these issues, the port construction works were kept in abeyance.

Later duringTDP regime, Nara Chandrababu Naidu inaugurated port works on February 7, 2019 a few days before election code. The TDP government had allocated port construction works to Navayuga Company. After the election results, the port construction works stopped and since then, port work was forgotten by all.